As far as I know the only actual benefits from trophies are:
- The top 3 clans top 10 players receive some gem bonuses when ever a season completes
- There is the "Sweet Victory!" achievement which you can complete by obtaining 75/750/1250 trophies.
- And then there is the League All-Star achievement that gives you some gems as you reach those higher level leagues (250 for Chrystal, 1000 for Master and 2000 for Champion)
So, unless your clan can seriously compete of a position amongst the top 3 clans, then you have no incentive to maintain a high trophy count. You may want to temporarily rise it to get some gems from an achievement, but only temporarily.
So am I missing something or what's the point?
Best Answer
Besides the rewards you already mentioned, there is a bonus for every raid you win that is based on what league you're in. It's usually small, but it can make a difference.
There's also the same reason there are leaderboards in any game - to see how you stack up against other players!
There is a downside to having many trophies, and that's that trophy count is an important factor in matchmaking. Thus, if you have many trophies you're going to get raided often by high level players, and you're likely to get matched up against hard opponents.
Many players that I've seen will try to maintain or lower their trophy count in order to find easier players to raid. You've probably seen players dropping trophies in this manner - usually, they will deploy a single troop against you, or they'll put out and immediate recall their hero units.